Haas ready to lay foundations on maiden run

Formula One newbie team Haas are preparing for their first ever run in F1.

The American team are entering the pinnacle competition in motorsport for the first time in 2016.

The first time the new car will hit the track will be the first winter test of 2016 at Circuit de Catalunya on Monday.

Expectation levels amongst this new team are quite high, they have the backing of true motorsport people who have a background in both Indy Cars and Nascar.

They have very good experience drivers in the form of Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez and boast a partnership with Ferrari which will see them run 2016 specification power-units and gearboxes.

But whilst on paper the Haas F1 team look in fine fettle, as McLaren Honda proved last season, a fast and reliable car is not designed on paper but on the track.

‘In our first test of the season and first as a team, you try to make sure everything works as you designed it. You just prove out whatever you did, and in the second part of the test, you try to get performance out of the car. Or, better said, you try to get performance as quickly as possible. Haas boss Guenther Steiner said to Sky Sports.

He added: ‘First of all, make sure everything works. Everything is new on the car. The first test is quite important just from a reliability factor. You try to learn as much as possible about the car. You get the baseline on the car and you work off that baseline the rest of the year.’

Former Lotus driver Romain Grosjean will get the honour of taking the first day of testing, before driving alternate days with Esteban Gutierrez on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The team have also published their running plan for the second winter test in Barcelona which begins in March.

On that occasion, Esteban Gutierrez will run on days one and two with Romain Grosjean ended pre-season testing on days three and four.